Stiq Figures, December 9 - 15: Holiday highlights edition

The holidays were a pretty different time for me when I was a kid - there was no such thing as Amazon shopping sprees, and my "game collection" consisted of a few cartridges under a clunky CRT TV, right next to the Super Nintendo. When I got a new game, I played it into the ground. When a new console came along, the most I could do in hopes of securing it was adding it to every wish list I had, despite their being way too expensive.

I was lucky, though. My family knew gaming was my favorite thing, and there were plenty of "shared gifts" for my brothers and I that, looking back, felt like excuses to justify the cost of a new console for me. My brothers would play once in a while, but I was the one buried in a Game Boy when traveling to my dad's, or hauling the N64 to the summer cabin for breaks from swimming. I took gaming with me everywhere I went, even if it was just the Pokemon Trading Card Game, which I swear was rigged in its coin flips.

The jet black Gamecube I got was probably was the pinnacle of my present-unwrapping career, mostly due to my purchase of Super Smash Bros. Melee the day it came out. I poured over that game's manual every day until Christmas, so unwrapping that console concluded weeks of hyping myself up with an instruction booklet and issues of Nintendo Power. The Gamecube didn't like having a glass of cola spilled onto it years later, but Melee is always ready for another round, despite the scratches it has collected over the years.

Did you have a keystone gaming present? Do you still dig it out once in a while like I do with Melee? Share your holiday gaming moments with us in the comments, right after you check out Japan's hardware sales after the jump! Oh, and happy holidays!